bottom of which, darkly and fitfully, appear the sin- literary artists learn that art and controversy are inister features of Karl Marx, a wandering Jew, whose compatible with each other? It is true that the atpersonal aims appear to be enveloped in mystery, thor, being a Tory of the good old type, is tolerably but who no doubt expected by troubling the waters impartial between parties as they are, and abuses of society to take some kind of fish. This worthy them pretty handsomely all round. Indeed, in his inwe are told spent his days in studying politics and dignation at Conservative backslidings he is forced to economy at the British Museum, and his nights in confess that the Radicals are the best of the lot, which studying the working-men at their places of social "is enough to break a gentleman s, not to say a patrresort. Armand Levi, another Jew, in the secret ser- ot's, heart." Of the leaders of the two great parties vice of the French Empire, attempted to give the he says, perhaps with more point than cleamess, movement an Imperialist direction, but was cut that "one (Mr. Gladstone) has a spasmodic conshort in his machinations by his master's fall. A science and a twisted brain, and the other (Mr. Dispredominating influence seems to have been at last raeli) has a spasmodic brain and no conscience at all." excited by Bakounine, a gigantic Russian savage, 1 Mr. Gladstone's army reforms are however unwitand a type of the extravagant socialism and atheism tingly justified in the most forcible manner by the to which the ill-balanced mind of the semi-barbar- character of Coppinger, one of the best things ous Slave rebounds from the extreme of paternal des- the book, and the true portrait of a large number potism and superstition. Cluseret, politically if any of the wealthy triflers to whom the lives of British thing a Fenian, but who was above all things a mi- soldiers and the honour of the empire were entrusted litary adventurer, opening the world oyster with his under the old system. After Sadowa and Sedan it sword, also gained an influence which of course in- | was high time to replace these men by soldiers procreased when, from organizing and speech-making, fessionally trained and devoted to their calling, wh affairs began to tend towards fighting. Ultimately need not on that account be any the less gentlemen. Tolain, the French chief of the industrial movement, The "Kicker" is no more a gentleman than he is a was thrust aside, and the secret history of the Inter- soldier. national merged in the secret history of the Commune, at which point Mr. Onslow Yorke's work terminates. FAIR TO SEE.-A novel. By Lawrence W. M. DEAD MEN'S SHOES.-A Romance by Jeannette R In spite of the uneasiness felt, and not very wisely betrayed, by the European governments, we are disposed to think that the mine has been pretty well emptied of its explosive contents in the Parisian inThis is decidedly a lively novel. The scene is surrection. The military circumstances of Paris laid in Louisiana. The plot runs through two ge after the siege, and the antagonism between the Pa- erations of two families, but the interest centres in risians and the Assembly which represented the the attempt of Dr. John Reynard to dispose of his power of the despised and detested "rurals," fur-step-son and step-daughter, the first by a course of nished the Communistic leaders with forces such as dissipation and absinthe, the second by marriage to they are not likely again to command. Whether a tool of his own in the person of his rascal brother. the International plays any important part in the in- Like the evil spirit in a novel generally, Dr. Reydustrial conflicts which still rage in Europe, and are nard makes all the fun, and we are really very sony unhappily extending themselves to this country, we when his schemes are foiled by the virtuous a are unable to say; but these conflicts present no heroic Miss Bertha Lombard, and when he is feature at present which they did not equally present ultimately drowned in a flood of the Mississippi. The before the International came into existence. bad characters, Dr. Reynard himself, his brother James and his wife, are well drawn ; the good characters are rather flat, as is too apt to be the cast. Miss Bertha Lombard, who is the angel of the piece. gets beyond the range of our sympathies from the moment when, being stabbed in the arm with a knife by her beloved, but demented cousin, she does not feel the stab, but only the word of reproach by which it was accompanied. There is something d the rawness of Louisiana in the scenery, moral and domestic as well as physical; and the ladies and gentlemen have a decided tinge both of the plat tion and of the Fifth Avenue Hotel. "Deuced fre girls; star of the first magnitude; diamond of the first water; pearl without price; pretty as a pink: dances like a fay; face piquant; worth going for; charming little witch; first class prize; sharr as a needle; manners of a little princess; the world in which such phrases as these are current may safely be said not to be highly refined. Slavery is in the background, but has little to do with the tale. We must protest against many of the constrac tions and expressions, if they are tendered as Fr lish and not as the language of Louisiana. From this out," "given up to be beyond compariso "kissed him good-night," "hush talking nonsense. "would rank middling fair," "would have gone ! A good novel, with well drawn characters, and an interesting plot fairly woven out of character and situation, without assistance from the stores of the sensation scene-painter. The subject of the story is a shooting party in the Highlands, out of which grows a love affair between Bertrand Cameron and Eila McKillop who is "fair to see." The weak part of the novel is that Eila can hardly be said to be fair even to see. Her false and hateful character is visible from the beginning. The ultimate marriage of Eila with old Sir Roland Cameron is rather a repulsive incident, and there is a flatness in the way in which Bertrand, after his misadventure with Eila, falls back on Morna Grant. Mr. McKillop's end, perhaps, should have been excepted in saying that the tale was free from sensationalism; but it was necessary for the happy winding up of the piece to get rid of him. The author is a military man, and, like most of his profession, a strong Tory; and he cannot help mingling his politics with his fiction. When will ANTIDOTE TO THE "THE GATES AJAR," by J. S. W. Sixth thousand. London: Hodder and Stoughton. "The Gates Ajar" was nonsense, though nonsense of a most marketable kind, as its success and the sum realized by it proved. We can understand its having an enormous run in the States, among the people who erect sentimental monuments in the Rose Walk of the Jeffersonville Cemetery, and bury their dead friend in a glass case, dressed in a blue surtout with a flower in his button-hole. Probably people did not really believe that Miss Elizabeth Stuart Phelps had any special information about the occupation of the blessed in the other world; but they bought her book with the sort of half curiosity, half credulity, with which the simpler sort of mortals buy an astrological almanac or an infallible cure for all diseases. The best antidote to nonsense is our own sense. But it seems that in the present case there is a large demand for another "Antidote," which has run through six thousands-probably by this time still more. We have read it, and can sincerely declare ourselves convinced that Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps has no special information about the occupations of the blessed in the other world. It is something, in this age of doubt and perplexity, to have distinctly arrived even at a negative conclusion. LIFE AND LABOURS of the REV. WM. MCCLURE, for more than forty years a minister of the Methodist New Connexion. Chiefly an Autobiography. Edited by the Rev. David Savage. Toronto: James Campbell & Son, 1872. This tribute to the memory of a good and earnest minister of the Gospel is very creditable both to the Editor and to the Conference of which he was a member. There are many in Toronto, not belong ing to the New Connexion Church, who will remember, with deep respect, the subject of this memoir. A tall figure, slightly bowed, though it scarcely appeared to be by age-the neck enveloped in one of those extraordinary white neckerchiefs, admirably drawn in the portrait prefixed to this volume, to get into or out of which seems a mystery to us of this generation-the face always beaming with meekness and good-nature, which were distinguishing marks of his character. Few of those who saw him in those latter peaceful days knew of the struggles through which he had passed, and the severer sufferings of his father before him. Much of the volume under review is made up of the religious experiences of Mr. McClure, into which it is not our province to enter; there is also much of permanent interest in anecdotes of the Repeal movement under Daniel O'Connell, and of the state of Ireland in the early part of this century, which we can only collect from the journals of acute observers like Mr. McClure. A true Irishman, the rev. gentleman possessed a full measure of the humour of his race, and although it was chastened by the essentially spiritual tone of his nature, it usually asserted itself in a quiet way on every social occasion. Yet, withal, he was a man thoroughly in earnest about the work he believed to be set before him in the Gospel; an active apostle of total abstinence; an energetic friend of the University of Toronto, on the Senate of which he sat as a member. Without great brilliancy or superior talent, his earnestness, his unaffected meekness, his genial and kindly disposition, endeared him to those with whom he came in contact, and, therefore, we think with Mr. Savage that it is well that some memorial of his laborious life should be placed on record. NOTES ON ENGLAND. By H. Taine, D.C.L., Oxon. &c. Translated with an Introductory Chapter by W. F. Rae. London: Strahan & Co. Toronto: Adam, Stevenson & Co. The popularity of M. Taine's Notes on England is already established, and that the work should be made accessible to all Englishmen in a translation was a matter of course. The translator, it appears to us, has done his work remarkably well, preserving to an unusual extent the vivacity and piquancy of the original, with little sacrifice of English idiom. In this respect, indeed, Mr. Rae's work equals, perhaps, any translation from the French which we know, and is singularly happy in giving, to those who do not read French, an idea of the French mind as reflected in the forms of expression. Here and there, perhaps, one feels a little inclined to smile at the skittishness to which our staid language is stimulated, and to wonder what old Johnson would have thought of this or that phase or construction. But as a whole the work could hardly have been better done. Mr. Rae's introductory chapter is also judicious, and most people will agree with its criticisms on the method of observation which M. Taine prides himself on having invented and professes to follow. Happily, when travelling in England, he observed with his eyes and not with his method. It is superfluous to repeat the praises which have been bestowed on M. Taine's Notes by the British journals and reviews. The best part of the work, in our judgment, is that which relates to national character, especially in its social aspect. It is true that M. Taine's point of view is rather that of the French salon, and that the worst of all social phenomena in his estimation appears to be a lady ill-dressed and with prominent teeth. But with this qualification the remarks are acute, subtle, sometimes profound. They are always candid, discriminating, and if not free from national bias, perfectly free from national antipathy. John Bull, seeing himself in the glass held up by M. Taine, will sometimes wince a little, but generally he will not be displeased, and he will admit that in intention at all events the critic is always just. The general descriptions of the country are also graphic, and in the main correct, though M. Taine is a little under the influence of conventional comedy on the subject of the British climate, the perpetual humidity of which must be broken by an occasional gleam of sun, or it could not ripen an immense crop of cereals every year. The weak portion of the Notes, as might have been expected, is the political part, which consists mainly of hasty and not very consistent generalizations, and is, moreover, written under the fatal influence of a manifest bias derived from the recent course of events in France. LITERARY NOTES. Senator Ryan's Copyright Bill received the Royal assent at the close of the late session of the Dominion Parliament. This new Act ought to prove satisfactory to all the parties interested-the British author, the Colonial publisher and the reading public of Canada. The subject was so fully discussed in the April number of this Magazine, that we are spared the necessity of referring to it at any length on the present occasion. The injustice inflicted upon Canadian industry and enterprise under the old system was manifest to every one who gave the subject a moment's consideration. The English publisher issued his works at a price beyond the means of the mass of Colonial readers. The American publishers reprinted these works, in many cases, without remunerating the author. These reprints were published at a cheaper rate; but, in addition to the publishing price, the Canadian reader had to pay the ad valorem duty, ostensibly as a royalty to the author, although, in fact, it seldom, if ever, found its way into the author's pocket. The Canadian publisher, with superior facilities, cheaper materials and a lower rate of wages, was virtually shut out of the competition. If a work of general interest issued from the English press, negotiations with the author were necessary before he could venture to undertake its republication. Meanwhile, before a "form" of the work could be put in type, he found the market fully supplied by an American reprint. All our publishers asked therefore was, not to be protected against foreign competition, but that foreign publishers should not be protected against them. The chief credit of the recent change in the law belongs of right to Mr. John Lovell, of Montreal. He proved, conclusively, by a reductio ad absurdum, that he could do in exile what, as a Canadian, he was not permitted to do at home. The provisions of the new law may be briefly stated as follows:-Any publisher, having a license for that purpose from the Governor-General, and having deposited $100 as security for the payment of an excise duty of 12 per cent. on the wholesale value of the work when printed in Canada, may within one month of securing the copyright, republish any British copyright work. The period of one month may be extended, for sufficient cause; the importation of foreign reprints of such works as are published under the Act is prohibited; and the excise duty is to be paid, not nominally but actually, to the party or parties beneficially interested in the British copyright. The question still remains whether our Parliament has not acted ultra vires in passing the new law. It is true that the B. N. America Act gives the Dominion legislature jurisdiction over the subject of copyright (30 & 31 Vic., c. 3, sec. 91), but it does not appear that any power was intended to be granted thereby in addition to that possessed by the old Province of Canada. The Imperial Copyright Act extends to the colonies, and it would seem, therefore, that Imperial legislation is necessary to give validity to the new Act. According to the Hon. Mr. Campbell, our Government is satisfied that the Act is constitutional; but as it only comes in force after a proclamation by the Governor-General, it is probable that the opinion of the law officers of the crown in England will be taken upon the point. In any case, there is no occasion to doubt the ultimate confirmation of so neces sary an enactment. As the summer advances there is a noticeable falling off in theological literature. We do not regret this, as it enables us to devote more attention to a few works of merit now lying before us. The latest instalment of Lange's Commentary-The Books of the Kings (New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co.), is the work of Dr. Karl Bæhr, of Carlsruhe, translated by competent American scholars. Like its predecessors, this volume is a monument of the critical power, thorough scholarship and unwearied industry of German theologians. Without attempting a general review of the work here, we may take a crucial example, which will at once occur to the stu dent of Scripture—the sign given to Hezekiah on the sun-dial (or more properly, the steps) of Ahaz (2 Kings xx. 9--11 and Isaiah xxxviii. 8.) The commentator and his American editor (an Episcopalian) are far from being Rationalists, although they do not seek to cloak the difficulties in the text. It is admitted that there is an inconsistency in the statements (1) that Hezekiah had recovered, and (2) that, after his recovery, he desired a sign "that the Lord would heal" him; and further, that the parallel account in Isaiah is " 'disjointed," and attributes a different reason for the giving of the sign. On the other hand, the opinion of Bosanquet, Adams, one of the discoverers of the planet Neptune, and other astronomers that the recession of the shadow o the stairs of Ahaz can be fully accounted for by a partial eclipse of the sun- is summarily repudiated. To those who think it a sound canon of biblical criticism that no phenomenon explicable by natural causes should be attributed to causes ultra-natural, we com mend an article in the June No. of the Sunday Mag azine, on "The Eclipses of Scripture Times." "Paul of Tarsus, by a Graduate," (Boston: Roberts Brothers) is an American reprint of an English work which has attracted considerable attention. It is a book which may be earnestly recommended to the general as well as to the theological reader. The author evidently possesses considerable acquaintance with classical, rabbinical and patristic literature, and he is at the same time master of a lucid and attractive style. We do not know any work which, within the same compass, contains so accurate and life-like an account of the apostle and his surroundings, of his enemies within and without the church, and of the heroic energy by which he overcame them all, and thus, humanly speaking, saved Christianity from the fate which seemed to await it-that “Judaism, the cradle of Christianity" did not also "become its grave." We are bound to confess, however, that some of the author's views, notably those on the Sunday question, the atonement, and dogmatic theology generally, will scarcely pass muster in orthodox quar ters. IT CHAPTER I. T was in every sense of the word a brilliant wedding. Montreal, the fair city that reclines at the foot of Mount Royal, had not for many months witnessed anything like it. Every embellishment that wealth could purchase had been procured every rule prescribed by taste or fashion followed-till the whole affair might have been safely pronounced a perfect success. Season and weather, often chary of their favours on similar occasions, were both propitious. The sunshine of a glorious October day bathed in golden radiance the new reaped field and meadow, the mountain with its glowing scarlet and yellow foliage, and the broad, sparkling St. Lawrence beyond. Brightly too it lit up the grinning gurgoyles and rich architectural ornaments of Christ Church Cathedral, where amid breathless silence the bride had just pronounced in a sweet, perfectly audible voice, the solemn words that united Fintered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada in the year 1872, by Adam, Stevenson & Co., in the Office of the vast edifice was bent either in criticism, a topic. Captain Dacre, however, had only curiosity or admiration, on herself, her arrived in Montreal two days previous, to superb serenity never varied. No nervous' join his regiment, and whilst strolling past tremour ran through her slight frame-no' the church had been induced to enter by tinge of colour flushed the creamy white of the crowd already gathered in front of its her cheek, and when she at length walked portal. slowly down the crowded aisle, she looked indeed a marvel of womanly stateliness and grace. As the bridal procession drove off, many and varied were the comments passed on the newly married couple. "Superb!" lisped a faultlessly attired exquisite, as he adjusted his eye-glass to obtain a fuller view of the departing carriages. "Never saw anything like it since | Ristori." "Weston is a fortunate man!" sighed another fop whose dark eyes and hair, and slightly foreign accent, bespoke him a French Canadian. "'Tis very well for you two gentlemen, who were, as every body knows, thoroughly bewitched by her, to prate about Weston's luck," interrupted a third, "but I, for one, pity him from my heart. Why she will not let him call his soul his own!" "Tut, Stone, you are jealous, man!" interposed another. One act of Virginia Bentley's goes far to prove that her heart is not unworthy of her face. She delayed her marriage till she had attained her majority, that she might place her large fortune, unrestricted by any conditions, in her husband's hands, a thing strenuously opposed by her guardians." "Ah! had I not reason to say Weston was a lucky man?" reiterated a former speaker. "Who is she?" queried a fair haired, sleepy eyed man in military garb, who had been leaning listlessly against the church door during the preceding dialogue. "Our leading belle and beauty, and an heiress to boot," replied one of the group, secretly wondering how the last speaker could possibly be ignorant on so interesting "Ah, Dacre, how do you do?" cried a frank, ringing voice, and another military man joined the little knot. "You were just in time to catch a first and last glance of the most bewitching beauty and accomplished coquette I have ever met." "Rather young, I should think, to have fairly earned as yet the latter title," rejoined Dacre, slightly raising his eyebrows. "I do not know that. If you had been exposed to the artillery of her charms as we have been for some time past, you would have a higher opinion of their power." Again Captain Dacre raised his eyebrows, more sarcastically this time than before. "Beauty, belle, and heiress-how did you all permit so rare a prize to escape you?" "Because Miss Bentley, like most of such feminine paragons, has a will and mind of her own. Besides, she and her husband have been engaged for many months past.” "But what qualities does this invincible bridegroom possess that he succeeded where so many failed ?" Nothing out of the common. Honcurable, moral, steady, and all that sort of thing; money-making, cleverish too, I believe." "Well, I do not exactly look on myself as a prophet, but I would venture to predict," and here the speaker, Colford Stone. smiled disagreeably, "that this time next year Clive Weston will not look as triumphant as he does to-day." After a few more words of idle talk the group separated, and the space in front of the church was left vacant. Meanwhile the wedding breakfast went gaily enough. There was a magnificent display of silver and rare china; all the delicacies of the season; everything that fashion |